L1 - Defining Crime

Question 1

What does crime refer to?

Answer 1

An act or the lack of an act that violates, and is punishable by, the law, which is harmful to the offender, someone else, a group, or society

Question 2

What facts affect the definition of crime?

Answer 2

Time e.g. smacking children was legal in the 90s but isn’t after 2004
Culture e.g. homosexuality is legal in Belgium but not in Egypt

Question 3

How do official statistics measure crime?

Answer 3

The government’s records of the number of crimes reported to the police are recorded as official statistics
Show crime in different regions around the country

Question 4

Evaluation for official statistics

Answer 4

Allow government to develop crime prevention strategies and direct police resources to areas that need it
Don’t include the dark figure (75%) which are crimes not reported to the police because the victim is scared or the police isn’t trusted

Question 5

What are victim surveys?

Answer 5

People’s experiences of crime are recorded over a specific period (e.g. over a year)

Question 6

Evaluation for victim surveys

Answer 6

More likely to account for the dark figure which wouldn’t be included in official statistics
Victims may telescope, i.e. they think a crime is more recent than it actually is, making the results less valid - rely on accurate memories

Question 7

What are offender surveys?

Answer 7

People volunteer information on how many and what type of crime they’ve committed - they’re selected on factors such as previous convictions

Question 8

Evaluation of offender surveys

Answer 8

Provide info on how many people commit what types of crime (i.e. a group or individual)
Targeted nature means some crimes are over-represented (e.g. burglary) and middle class ones are under-represented (e.g. fraud)